


Galad

by valiantfindekano



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-12
Updated: 2014-10-12
Packaged: 2018-02-20 22:32:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2445542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valiantfindekano/pseuds/valiantfindekano
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A young Celebrían interrupts Celebrimbor's work; he finds, to his surprise, an interested student.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Galad

Normally Celebrimbor liked the open plan of his study. It kept him from feeling claustrophobic and close-minded, and allowed both sunlight and moonlight to stream in at all times of day and night. He trusted the isolated area to keep him from interruption—but there were always exceptions. The most curious, and the most easily lost, sometimes tore him from his concentration.

Today’s guest was very quiet as she entered. From the corner of his eye, he saw a small figure with a wave of light hair hanging over her shoulders, clad in a dress of green and pink and yellow—a Sindarin girl, and one he could recognize without needing to lift his gaze from his work. Galadriel’s daughter already drew attention for beauty; Celebrimbor remained ambivalent. She was only a child, after all.

Shyly, the girl edged closer.

“What are you doing?” Celebrían asked, peering up at him. For the most part, she resembled her father rather than her mother, taking his silver hair rather than Galadriel’s gold. She had her mother’s eyes, though, a bright colour that was neither blue nor green nor grey.

The question was annoying when asked by other children, but Celebrimbor was quick to forgive, recalling he’d been equally full of questions when he was young—but more hesitant to ask them, and he regretted that he’d not felt comfortable enough to phrase over half the questions that had pressed on his mind. A dim child demanding answers was trying to his patience, but at the same time, he couldn’t resent them for feeling comfortable enough around him. And Celebrían, he suspected, was not dim.

“Your mother has a green jewel,” Celebrimbor answered. “Do you know it?”

Celebrían nodded. “She calls it Elessar.”

“That is the one. I am trying to create a similar gem, but white rather than green.” It was a property of the green stone that allowed the enchantment set on it, and the way the light travelled through it. But the Elessar had set an admittedly inadvisable idea into his mind, and until he could at least prove it wasn’t plausible…

“Are you trying to make a Silmaril?” Celebrían replied. She stretched up onto her toes so she could peer over his desk at the spread of papers in front of him, but to Celebrimbor’s relief, she didn’t reach to touch them, or any of the gems set out before him.  

He wondered who had taught her of the Silmarilli. “Not quite,” he lied. “Though it would be nice to trap the light of the sun and the moon in a single gem, wouldn’t it?” Or the light of Eärendil’s star—

Suddenly, Celebrimbor’s pen was in motion, and he scrawled a note onto the bottom of his paper.

Once he had set it down, Celebrían spoke again, and he took note of her politeness; half the adults in this city would not have waited for him to finish writing. “How can you put light into a jewel?”

Celebrimbor laughed. Not mockingly; bitterly, rather, though he doubted the girl would understand why. “That is what I mean to find out. So far I am only able to make the light reflect in such a way that it gives the appearance of producing light, but the actual manner of holding it inside-“

Celebrían blinked.

After a second, Celebrimbor reached for one of the polished stones on his desk—the largest and clearest, though his example would only serve so far in a room without the best natural lighting. He brought it down to Celebrían’s level, however, twisting it between his fingers. “Do you see how the sunlight shines off the facets?”

Celebrían nodded.

“The light interplays with the surface of the gem. The beam hits the crystal, and some passes through to the inside, while some reflects away from it. Our goal as gemsmiths is to shape the stones in such a way that they appear brightest, but the quality of the material often affects it.” He paused. “Have you seen the mirrored lamps in Hadhodrond? It is like that, almost, but on a smaller scale.”

To his surprise, however, Celebrían shook her head. “Ada doesn’t want me to visit the dwarves.”

Celebrimbor’s hand clenched, reminded of half the reason for his dislike of Galadriel’s husband. Why  _should_  he keep his daughter from the dwarves’ city? “Would you like to visit?” he asked.

Celebrían smiled. “Yes! Naneth says that is where the jewels come from.”

“More than that,” Celebrimbor replied, and he found he returned her smile. “We get stone and mithril from the mines, and their forges are something to behold. Let me speak to your father, and I will see if I can take you to see the lamps.” 


End file.
